RD Burman-composed Meri Nazar Hai Tujh Pe from The Burning Train OST features in iPhone commercial

Mar 23, 2018 11:23:08 IST

Any Bollywood music lover would abide by the fact that yesteryear composer Rahul Dev Burman (RD Burman) had indeed brought about a revolution in Hindi film music.

With compositions spanning diverse genres — from classical, pop, western, jazz, contemporary — he struck a chord with listeners like no one ever had. While many a times there were instances of his composition bearing a resemblance to popular western (or foreign) tracks, he always added his personal touch to them.

Now, one of Burman's tracks — 'Meri Nazar Hai Tujh Pe' from the 1980 film The Burning Train — features in the background score of latest Apple iPhone commercial.

Still from the latest Apple iPhone X commercial. YouTube screengrab

Like every other Apple commercial, this one too is out of the box. The ad brings into focus the face recognition based unlocking feature (what Apple calls Face ID and Android calls Face Unlock). Filled with edgy, colourful visuals and being fast paced — Burman's track does full justice to it.

Officially, though, the music credit of the track is given to Pete Cannon's 'Bang Bang' which then has audio samples from Burman's track. As people started recognising the Bollywood song, criticism came knocking on Cannon's doors. As a counter measure, he took to Twitter and posted:

Hi Guys, I just want to address the sample used in the new Apple iPhoneX advert. It samples a track from the great R D Burman's 'Burning Train’ and it's a MAGICAL piece of music! It was cleared/licensed via Blurred Recs courtesy of Saregama. Everyone is on board and loves it. 😉

— Pete Cannon (@petecannonbeats) March 19, 2018